Famous British sculptor Barbara Hepworth’s words “I am the form and I am the hollow, the thrust and the contour” are relevant to any sculptor, especially those who favour the ceramic medium.

Formed with Fire is a collective exhibition that echoes Hepworth’s words in the works of six of the foremost of contemporary Maltese ceramists. The element of fire adorns their hard work with solidity and final burnish. However, three other elements, those of earth, air and water are essential as well.

Kenneth Grima – East Sphere

All these sculptures start out as base earth in the form of clay to which water is added to make it more malleable. Now the artist can knead an impalpable concept into something visible and tangible. Air dries everything up and fire finishes the job. And thus the fifth element, that which classical civilisations described as the void or the quintessence, is captured and given volume. One can perhaps say that of all categories of artists, it is only the ceramic artists that have the ability of bringing the five elements into one cohesive whole.

Antoine Paul Camilleri, being the son of one of the greatest artists in the history of Maltese art, has overcome the paternal overbearing presence and developed into one of Malta’s foremost ceramists. The elongation and emaciation of the figures, which is a characteristic of the older Camilleri, has been developed by Antoine Paul into these sculptures that display a disarming innocence in the representation of the female body. The elegance of the prostrate female in a Modigliani painting, as well as a Gauguin-like ripening womanhood, meet in these earthily rough sculptures. Motherhood is willingly accepted in the restful abandon of the pose and in the facial ‘Van Dongen’ expression that is suggestive of an innocence not quite lost.

Charles Sammut’s biomorphic shapes have always been a constant in the output of the artist. Along the years, he has managed to create a language that is different from the one of his great mentor Gabriel Caruana. Abstraction has evolved organically and steadily.

Sammut’s works in this exhibition have a tactile quality and an elegance that makes one think of Constantin Brancusi’s Bird sculptures. This is particularly true in four of the sculptures which seem to form a series. 

However, the indentations in the upper part of this family of sculptures do suggest orifices. This adds to their primitive monumentality and their mystery. They are like standing stones whose function is to inspire awe. They are unable to reveal what they stand for as they communicate in a timeless language that is beyond the human capabilities to comprehend.

Sammut’s works have a tactile quality

Identity and community are fingerprints of Mario Sammut’s sculptures. The humanoid elements that characterise his output are represented generally as a couple or as a group. The featureless faces and genderless forms ironically endow the characters with a strong sense of purpose and determination. The communication is intimate and the figures are rooted to a shared and basic origin.

Sammut seems to suggest that notwithstanding the misconceptions of racial inequality and superiority, we are all related to each other through a common biology and evolution. The tightly-knit communities are strong and defy any exterior force bent on tearing them apart. The couples portrayed in some other of Sammut’s sculptures show a sense of intimacy that is sacred and eternal. Sammut poetically narrates and gives volume to these silent but eloquent stories.

Joseph Agius – Chip Off the Old Block

Sina Micallef’s two exhibits are made up of different elements that work in dissimilar ways to achieve a sense of completion. Reclining started out as a five-minute sketch which the artist developed into four separate ceramic parts, or building blocks, that come together as a reclining Matisse-inspired odalisque. Pulling them apart would give each individual part a different abstract dimension with the consequent loss of the figurative element.

Satsanga, the title of Micallef’s other exhibit, can be translated from Indian to mean a spiritual discourse or sacred gathering. Nine figures congregate around a bowl-like receptacle which can hold water and whose purpose can be ritualistic and purificatory. The figures, slightly reminiscent of Fausto Melotti, are in different states of rest and evoke an aura of silent introspection. They invite the viewer to partake in their story and to move them around in search of different storylines.

The round transparent glass base of this multi-moduled sculpture intentionally repeats the circular motif of the central bowl. The circle, timeless, perfect and eternal, is one of the universal symbols for God. Through Satsanga, one can be as one with God.

The world of Joseph Agius shares a common characteristic with that of Sammut. The preoccupation with human relationships is common ground. But while the latter stresses the importance of human intimacy in all its aspects and manifestations, the former is more concerned with the strife and turmoil that accompanies modern and contemporary man. Both artists strive to deliver a message which is universal – Sammut’s is one of peace through balance and harmonious relationships while that of Agius is one of human suffering and its terminal resolution in death.

By Charles Sammut

Agius interprets metaphors and figures of speech literally and creatively spells out the meaning of an abstract concept as he lays out his rows of listless humanoid sufferers. His work as a nurse at Mater Dei Hospital exposes him to a range of human misery which creeps subconsciously into his ceramics. Pain, disease, sorrow and death are his daily staple diet. And the dismal world news of war and devastation adds to his subject matter.

Kenneth Grima’s works inspire wonder in much the same way as ancient artefacts belonging to primitive civilisations. The cows portray something elemental, zoomorphic and primordially divine. The altar or mensa that one of the cows carries is indicative of initiation or sacrificial rites. As in archaic religions, one can find it difficult to decipher a language that speaks at a much deeper and esoteric level and whose significance has been lost in the midst of time.

Grima is also interested in empirical opposites which he brings together in sculptures that establish a union of sorts. East Sphere and West Sphere demonstrate a separation which is stalled by the saprophytic growths that are typical of the sculptor’s oeuvre. The bottom spherical component which is slightly puckered is common for both sculptures and might represent a constant or planet Earth.

The upper component can be representative of human ephemeral beliefs and endeavours symbolised by glyphs that aren’t constant as they belong to the two different hemispheres. One can interpret the upper part as pertaining to the spiritual, the obsession of world religions to seek salvation via ascension into the heavens above. The fungi-like saprophytes maintain the equilibrium besides providing the network by which nutrients and knowledge can be mutually transferred.

Quoting Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi: “The attractions of ceramics lie partly in its contradictions. It is both difficult and easy, with an element beyond our control. It is both extremely fragile and durable. It does not lend itself to erasures and indecisions.”

Formed with Fire invites us to assert this for ourselves.

Formed with Fire is open at the Natural History Museum, Mdina, until today at 12.30pm. Entrance is from the Mdina local council side.

By Antoine Camilleri